Dundee have been dealt a major blow with the news that captain Darren O’Dea will be out for three weeks.
The Dark Blues have suffered more than their fair share of injury misery in the opening weeks of the season, with striker Craig Wighton out for the season with cruciate ligament damage and fellow frontman Sofien Moussa having had a knee operation earlier this week.
On top of that, winger Randy Wolters is a doubt for tomorrow’s trip to Aberdeen with a hamstring injury picked up at Hamilton last weekend, while Roarie Deacon has just returned to training after being out with a knock.
With a daunting-looking trip to Pittodrie to come up next, the last thing Dundee manager Neil McCann wanted to hear was that the knee problem O’Dea suffered in that 3-0 loss to Accies is actually worse than first feared.
McCann said: “Darren is probably looking at three weeks now, going by the scan.
“He has been properly assessed and it is a bit of a blow.
“It’s his knee. He took a knock on it against Hamilton and we’ve got the scan back.
“It suggested it was a wee injury to one of his ligaments so we had to make sure and that is the case.”
The Dens men have had former Inverness Caley Thistle defender Josh Meekings training with them for a few weeks and could now move to sign him up.
McCann also put a timescale of up to four weeks on frontman Moussa’s absence after the Tunisian forward had surgery on his knee.
“We are hoping he will be back in three or four weeks, all going well,” added the Dundee boss.
“It’s his meniscus on the knee.
“He caught it at home here (against Ross County) so just needed a wee tidy-up.
“It’s good news. It can be a troublesome thing but the surgeon was delighted with it.
“He’s the type of boy who’s saying he could be back quicker but it’s not the type of thing you can rush.
“We just need to be careful.”
McCann was keen to accentuate the positive as regards Moussa but he did admit that the Dark Blues have been dealt a poor hand this early in the campaign.
He said: “We have been unlucky with injuries.”
There has been speculation linking the Dark Blues with a possible move for Colchester’s Scots-born striker Denny Johnstone but McCann said: “We’re not in for him. I know Denny from Morton but he’s not on our radar.”
Meanwhile, after two successive league defeats left them bottom of the Premiership, McCann is expecting the Dons to make it difficult for his players at Pittodrie.
He said: “We will be in for a tough game on Saturday.
“They scored late last week against Ross County, who played very well, and I have watched the game.
“Both Graham (assistant boss Gartland) and I travelled up to watch them at Pittodrie the week before against Hamilton.
“So we know what we are going to face and I got another report done on them against Hamilton down there in the Betfred Cup.”
